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Cleaner Air Could Speed Global Warming
Hugh Pickens writes "Scientists estimate that the US Clean Air Act has cut a major air pollutant, sulfate aerosols, by 30% to 50% since the 1980s, helping greatly reduce cases of asthma and other respiratory problems. But NPR reports that this good news may have a surprising downside: cleaner air might actually intensify global warming. One benefit of sulfates is that they've been helpfully blocking sunlight from striking the Earth for many decades, by brightening clouds and expanding their coverage. Researchers believe greenhouse gases such as CO2 have committed the Earth to an eventual warming of roughly 4 degrees Fahrenheit, a quarter of which the planet has already experienced. But thanks to cooling by aerosols starting in the 1940s, the planet has felt only a portion of that warming. And unlike CO2, which persists in the atmosphere for centuries, aerosols last in the air for a week at most, so cutting them would probably rapidly accelerate global warming. The author of 'Hack the Planet' says: 'As we take away that unexpectedly helpful cooling mask, we're going to be facing more global warming than we expected.'"
>His thing is geo-engineering though
OH YEAH NOW I REMEMBER. *smacks forehead*
I did hear part of that broadcast! I kept swearing at him! He's the king of "what could possibly go wrong?"
He's a troll. No question about it. We don't know enough to do geo-engineering and anything we do know puts us in the position of "knowing just enough to be a danger to ourselves." It's like understanding Maxwell's Equations and suddenly deciding to troubleshoot a substation.
And one of his points was once we start, we can't possibly stop doing it because the effect will go away. He forgets that John Martin was using his best Dr. Strangelove accent while saying "give me half a tanker of iron and I'll give you an ice age."
Yo, dude, John Martin was ONLY KIDDING!
The fact he got actual airtime on NPR makes me angry.
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BMO
Yes, you know, that was a truly original idea. Things could have so many causes. I wonder why no one ever thought of that before?
Oh wait, they did. Some of it is CO2, some of it is less particulates, solar output does change (but not in the direction that would explain recent warming) and temperature data do have inaccuracies (but there's no reason to think they tend in any particular direction).
There are multiple factors affecting a highly complex system. That's why we use climate models (although the basic facts of global warming were predicted a hundred years ago, and confirmed fifty years ago.)
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
I guess the study was financed by the oil industry.
In the 60's the hippies told us overpopulation would kill us. Then in the 70's it was global cooling. Then in the 80's it was the hole in the ozone layer (which is what prompted us to pass that damn clean air act and get rid of those aerosols in the first place). Now it's global warming. And they wonder why some of us are so skeptical.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Note to mods:
Read the rules on moderating. Thanks.
You can mod this one down too if you want to waste your mod points. Go ahead.
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BMO
It costs about as much energy or more to make a solar panel as it will generate in its entire life. So unless you make solar panels using wind energy or something like that, it won't save on the environment.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!